Various extreme conditions create situations which dictate extraordinary nutritional requirements. Examples of such conditions include high altitude and its' associated cold environment, and long term confined space operations. Examples of these conditions include Submarine based S.E.A.L. team deployment with E.V.A (dark, cold water submersible deployment), long term special-forces high altitude pursuit, after lengthy staging operations, interplanetary travel, such as a Mars mission) or extended space station operations, where the decreased spacesuit pressure mimics high altitude, often requiring high energy, high calorie Extra Vehicular Activity. Such conditions have, for the longest time, presented a most difficult human operational envelope, requiring highly specific but as yet unrealized nutritional tools.
Man's ability to continually expand the human element in extreme operations, relies in large part on an ability to create products which are capable of satisfying nutritional needs above and beyond the current scope of the food and nutritional industries.
The current lack of nutritional resources sufficient to provide the required dense calorie logistics is significantly limiting the expansion of the human operational threshold. The statement of need is perhaps better articulated by the Academy of Sciences in their 1996 thorough report, “Nutritional Needs in Cold and High-Altitude Environments: Applications for Military Personnel in Field Operations”
There is no question that operational logistics would benefit from a dense, healthy fat, calorie platform. The Academy's recommendations following this most exhaustive, functional research compilation on the subject to date, shows their desire to entertain a dense fat calorie regimen. Concern over conventional dietary fat, cholesterol intake and the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis, strokes, and Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) steers them towards their suggested compromise diet of 12–15% Protein, 60% Carbohydrate (CHO) and 25–28% Fat. However by their own account, “The easiest way for military feeding systems to provide for increased caloric needs during cold-weather operations is to include additional dietary fats. Diets containing more of the high density fat fuels may become an operational necessity.”
Animal fats and cooking oils are the fat rich dietary elements currently employed in military and space rations. Supplements with a modestly higher fat content tested in 1991, did not result in sufficient energy intake.
The greatest fear voiced by the Academy is that by introducing additional fats they would be increasing the risk of coronary heart deaths. This fear was echoed in the FDA's address of Trans Fatty Acids and Hydrogenation in its' 1999 response to the Department of Health and Human Services, specifically, “Trans Fatty Acids in Nutrition Labeling, Nutrient Content claims, and Health claims”, echoing the Academy's concerns.
The cooking oil formulation of the instant invention is designed to replace current cooking oils, thereby providing the healthiest possible dense calorie scenario for a uniquely defined operational profile, while simultaneously providing a formulation which allays the Academy's fears.